Weddings: Dominique Hopkins and Theodore Hughes

Soon after her 21st birthday in fall 2010, Nikki accepted her best friend Aileen's invitation to experience the wonders of State College nightlife and hopped a bus from La Salle to Penn State.

The duo were out late the first night she was in town, so on the second night all Nikki really wanted was to chill, preferably in sweatpants. But Aileen had made plans with two other friends at Indigo. One friend was Ted.

Ted and Aileen danced while Nikki and Ted's best friend and roommate Elyse miserably watched from the sidelines. "We were counting down the minutes to last call or one of them got bored," Nikki said.

When the night ended, Nikki and Ted had each formed opinions of the other, neither favorable.

"I thought she was very boring, not even coming out onto the dance floor," he said.

"He barely introduced himself, and barely talked to me or even his roommate," she said. "I thought he was rude."

They didn't even bother to friend each other on Facebook.

Six months later, Aileen again invited Nikki to town. "She was dating someone, and I had to give the 'best friend's seal of approval,' " Nikki said.

On the Thursday night of St. Patrick's Day weekend, Ted joined them at the bar. Nikki figured she could put up with him. But this time, everything was different.

They had fun listening to music, then later, talking at Aileen's apartment. Among the discoveries: Nikki grew up in Mayfair, Ted, in Bustleton.

"I was kind of wrong about this guy - he was super fun," Nikki said.

"She was a completely different girl - fun and interesting," Ted said. "She was outgoing and spoke her mind."

Nikki had snapped pictures all weekend. When she got home Sunday, her new Facebook friend Ted asked her to share them. When Nikki made her third trip to Happy Valley to help Aileen move out, her cellphone kept vibrating with Ted texts. "You're in State College. Let's hang out!" A group assembled for ice cream and drinks.

Nikki returned to Philadelphia. Ted headed to a Pocono's camp for a summer lifeguarding job.

They texted all summer. At the end, his text read: "Hey, I'm home. Let's go on a date."

Dinner at Silk City was the first date she had been on since a brutal breakup eight months prior. It was Ted's first since freshman year, when he and his high school girlfriend broke up.

They took things slowly. But whenever Ted reached out, "I was always game. I stopped what I was doing to hang out with Ted. That's how into it I was," Nikki said.

That January, he handed her a flower and asked her to be his girlfriend. Three weeks later, Ted panicked. He really cared for Nikki, but he had cared for his previous girlfriend and she had hurt him.

He broke it off without explanation. After a few months of no contact, they decided to try friendship.

After a year post-breakup, Nikki realized she was in a holding pattern. On New Year's Eve, she made a resolution. "I'm going to swear off Ted," she told her girlfriends. "He's never going to get back with me, or even tell me what happened."

Ted had also been contemplative that night. The first day of 2013, he invited Nikki to dinner with his family.

"She was always on my mind after I broke up with her - I just didn't want to admit it," he said. Ted decided come what may, he had to try.

After an April day spent talking on Ted's porch, he asked her again to be his girlfriend. This time, they were ready.

Nikki, now 26, is a substitute teacher earning a master's in elementary and special education from Holy Family University. Ted, 27, is manager of life annuities and long-term care for Pinnacle Financial Services in Warminster. They live in Horsham with their pug, Olivia.

In November 2014, Ted decided to take advantage of a rare, common day off and planned a trip to Longwood Gardens - a place Nikki had always wanted to see.

It was so unseasonably cold that despite her enthusiasm, Nikki asked to go home and return in fairer weather. "I just want to see this one thing before we leave, and then I will take you home," he told her.

They headed toward an indoor exhibit that Nikki swore they'd already seen. Then Ted insisted on finding somebody to take their picture. It was taking forever, Nikki thought. When he returned, employee in tow, Ted made all these weird suggestions about fixing her hair and putting her purse down.

As the first photo was taken, Nikki saw movement out of the corner of her eye. "What are you doing?" she asked Ted.

He was kneeling.

Nikki got ready in her childhood bedroom. When she came down the stairs afterward, her dad was waiting at the bottom. "His face just lit up with this big smile, and I was beaming, too," she said.

That happiness continued outdoors, where, after many days of rain, the sun came out long enough to hold the short, nondenominational ceremony beneath the pergola at the Warrington Country Club.

"The bridesmaids were coming out, and then came Nikki with her dad," Ted said. Nikki walked down the aisle to an instrumental version of Christina Perri's "A Thousand Years."

"The music was just perfect," Ted said. "I felt like I was watching a movie."

For the couple, the highlight of their reception for 200 was dancing all night. "That was the thing we most wanted," Nikki said.

The couple saw each other for the first time that day before the ceremony. Nikki walked up behind Ted and tapped him on the shoulder. "You look so good in your tux," she told him. He couldn't speak for a minute, then said, "You look so pretty, and I was right."

Right about the dress she chose. Nikki tried to throw him off, but "I know her style so well that once I looked on the store's website, I knew exactly which one she would pick," he said.

Ted had been dreading all the eyes on him during the first dance. Then Hunter Hayes' "Wanted" started and they began. "I realized nothing else matters, because you're with the person you love, so all the fear is gone," he said.

A bargain: The couple gave guests a two-inch potted succulent. "They were wholesale, so cheap. And everyone loved them," Nikki said.

The splurge: Even though Nikki bought her Mark Zunino dress during a trunk show at Kleinfeld Bridal, "it was still 10 times what I would have spent at David's Bridal," she said.

A week in St. Lucia.

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Officiant: Nelle Taylor, Taylor Made Memories by Nelle, Bridgeton, N.J.

Venue: Warrington Country Club, Warrington

Catering: Warrington Country Club

Photography: Anton Drummond Photography, Philadelphia

Flowers: Domenic Graziano Flowers, Southampton, Pa.

Dress: Designed by Mark Zunino, purchased at Kleinfeld Bridal, New York

Music: Vince Rotondi of Impulse Entertainment, Hatboro

Do you have the date? E-mail us - at least six weeks before your ceremony - why we should feature your love story: weddings@phillynews.com. Unfortunately, we can't respond individually to all submissions. If your story is chosen, you will be contacted.

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